When BSL applies
The Building Safety Levy (England) Regulations 2025 were made on 19 Nov 2025 and came into force on 1 Oct 2026[Building Safety Levy (England) Regs 2025 (SI 2025/1236)], amended on commencement by the Building Safety Levy (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2026[Building Safety Levy (Amendment) (England) Regs 2026 (SI 2026/1034)]. The levy is charged under the Building Safety Act 2022 framework [Building Safety Act 2022]. It applies to building-control applications for major residential development in England submitted on or after 1 Oct 2026.
The threshold: dwellings or student bedspaces
Regulation 6 defines major residential development as at least 10 dwellings or at least 30 bedspaces in purpose-built student accommodation [Building Safety Levy (England) Regs 2025 (SI 2025/1236)]. A bedspace is a sleeping area for one person, so a student scheme can be in scope on the bedspace count alone with no dwellings at all. Where the building already contains dwellings or bedspaces, the threshold bites only on a net increase of 10 or 30 respectively, so conversions and extensions are tested on the uplift rather than the finished total. A scheme below both thresholds is not charged the levy.
Exemptions
Schedule 1 exempts, among others, school accommodation, care homes, hospitals, secure residential institutions and other premises for the supervision or rehabilitation of offenders, accommodation for victims of domestic abuse, children's homes, residential family centres and supported accommodation for children, hotels and hostels, monasteries, nunneries and seminaries, almshouses, and temporary accommodation for homeless people. Schedule 2 exempts qualifying social housing, shared ownership, discounted-rent and discounted-sale homes, and supported housing; homes brought forward by a not-for-profit registered provider of social housing are also exempt.
Two of the Schedule 2 social-housing conditions turn on a s.106 obligation: lettings by a provider that is not a registered provider qualify only where a planning obligation secures the occupancy and rent criteria, and discounted-sale homes qualify only where a planning obligation entered into before first sale holds later sales at the discount. That is where the levy and the s.106 deed actually intersect: the deed is what carries the exemption.
Rates set per local authority
Rates are charged per square metre of chargeable floorspace (gross internal area, RICS Code of Measuring Practice 6th edition) and are set for each local-authority area, weighted by local house prices, so higher-value areas carry higher rates. Development on previously developed land is charged at half the rate that applies to land that is not previously developed. The per-authority rate table is Schedule 3 to the regulations [BSL Regs 2025 Sch 3 (per-authority rates)]. The 2026 amendment widened what counts as previously developed land to include permanent structures such as paved areas and fixed plant, and excluded land whose previous works were unlawful[Building Safety Levy (Amendment) (England) Regs 2026 (SI 2026/1034)].
Schedule 3 rates for the authorities this estimator covers, in £ per sqm of chargeable GIA:
| Local authority area | Previously developed | Not previously developed |
|---|---|---|
| Leeds | 12.29 | 24.57 |
| Manchester | 14.22 | 28.44 |
| Birmingham | 14.62 | 29.23 |
| Cornwall | 14.79 | 29.58 |
| Milton Keynes | 15.32 | 30.63 |
| Bristol, City of | 21.48 | 42.97 |
| Cambridge | 25.44 | 50.87 |
| Camden | 43.56 | 87.12 |
| Kensington and Chelsea | 50.17 | 100.35 |
The spread is wide enough to matter in appraisal: the Kensington and Chelsea rate is roughly four times the Leeds rate for the same floorspace on the same land type.
BSL alongside CIL and S106
BSL sits alongside CIL and S106 as a parallel charge, not a substitute. The CIL Regs 2010 reg 122 necessity test for S106 obligations is unaffected by BSL. Viability appraisal layers BSL as a build-cost line; it is not a deed obligation.
Payment timing
The levy is enforced through building control: a completion certificate cannot be issued until the levy has been paid, so BSL falls due late in the build programme. The development manager should layer the payment into the cashflow appraisal at that point rather than at commencement.